Simple Things

Characteristics of Pop Art, the kind Sister Corita evolved into while teaching at Immaculate Heart College, are two. One) is a preoccupation with the everyday, taking symbols or objects we’re used to seeing—or not—and recasting them or turning them sideways or on their head so that we see them differently. What Andy Warhol did with Campbell Soup, Tomato, cans Sister Corita did with Wonder bread, and the G in General Mills. Two) is color. Not the run of the mill color, but vibrant, acid kool-aid color, Kerouac, Timothy O’Leary color. Both of these characteristics are emblematic of Christianity—for those with ears to hear and eyes to see. It is about the visible world, amplified, a transcendent world all around us. Taking the quotidian and going deeper, beyond, helping us to let go, to believe—

like seeds in the wind, couched in the earth, waiting to grow.

This weekend I took several long bike rides within 20- 25 miles of my house and I was amazed at the color of the sky, the lush green, and the smells, the hush and the call of birds, the quiet little church and the one-room school house I passed. Artifacts of a by-gone life and aspirations for the future.

Somehow, after miles in the saddle, spent, I can feel renewed.